AM News: Obama Geeks Out, First Lady Freaks Out

Obama Meets Scientists, One Age 6 NYT: More than a hundred students displayed their projects and inventions at what President Obama, who has been promoting the STEM subjects, called one of his favorite events.

Obama Promotes Science, Math Education as Economic NeedBloomberg: In conjunction with the event, Obama announced a $35 million Department of Education competition program to help reach his goal of training 100,000 new teachers. The administration also plans to expand the Americorps volunteer program to provide...

First Lady Responds To School Meal Critics AP: First lady Michelle Obama is striking back at House Republicans who are trying to weaken healthier school meal standards, saying any effort to roll back the guidelines is "unacceptable."

What it’s like to win the National Spelling Bee Vox: The National Spelling Bee is a bizarre ritual. Every spring, hundreds of middle-school students cram into a hotel ballroom and attempt to spell obscure words that few human beings have ever uttered — or will ever utter — in the course of their lifetimes.

More news below (and throughout the day at @alexanderrusso).

Like Seattle, Boston Pushes For Universal Pre-K Seattle Public Radio: Marcie Sillman talks to WBUR reporter David Scharfenberg about Boston's efforts to expand its preschool system. Here in Seattle, the City Council is considering a property tax levy to fund universal pre-k.

The Common Core FAQ NPR: It's not just Louis C.K. and Stephen Colbert who are confused about the Common Core. Get the facts here.

Finns beat U.S. with low-tech take on school Politico: Finnish students and teachers didn’t need laptops and iPads to get to the top of international education rankings, said Krista Kiuru, minister of education and science at the Finnish Parliament. And officials say they aren’t interested in using them to stay there.

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Finland's educational system is in slow decline, relatively speaking (the Finns don't want to compare themselves to other countries, but that doesn't mean that others, such as stock investors and international employers, won't do so, to the Finns' benefit or detriment), but Finland was right to focus on teacher training and teacher trust first, instead of America's new, counterproductive teacher appraisal systems that are driving young people away from the teaching profession (I used a Finnish teacher contract as a model for that of One World School, which is still an ongoing project). Teachers and technology should both be classified as learning resources (that's where they are both referred to in our course descriptions), but teachers are the more important and more valuable, especially at the primary level and with young children, which is where Finnish education remains the model for the rest of the world.